PHA-Exch> Urgent need for solidarity against privitization of HS in Egypt

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Alaa Shukrallah <alaashuk at yahoo.com>

Herebelow a statement which we developed as and came out of the national
conference against the proposed law of privitizing health care services in
Egypt. The document is signed by nearly 50 political parties and Civil
society organisations in Egypt.

I do hope it gives you a clearer idea on what is being proposed and why we
oppose it.
In response I suggest that we adopt a two pronged strategy.
1. letters can be written by yourselves and all other esteemed individuals
particularly to the European Union Commission, the World Bank, The USAID as
well As the Egyptian Government. We have to stress that the law will
discriminate between peoples access to health services and will make much of
it out of reach of the majority. It will increase inequity in health and
accordingly it is non-constitutional and goes against all the human
rights conventions that Egypt is a signitory to.
The second strategy I suggest is maybe that the statement would be made into
a petition and signed by the different organisatins that you belong to
including academic, social movements, political parties...etc. and sent to
the above mentioned stakeholders.,

I need your feed back. The time is short. But I think despite the govenment
insistance to pass the law and ofcourse the parliament will pass it as it is
in the hands of the government, we can still either stop it or at least
ameliorate its negative impact and provide the movement of the right to
health in Egypt with new vigour and strength.

 Statement From  The National Egyptian conference for the rights to health
and against privatization of health services.

The right to health campaign in Egypt developed in 2005 through the
initiative of several Civil Society Organizations as a reaction to the
declared intentions and continuous actions from the Government of Egypt to
privatize the health care services and in its heart and as a first step the
Health Insurance Organization (HIO). The campaign was joined by many other
groups in the provinces and received much attention from several of the
press agencies both opposition and independent press.

In 2007, the "Egyptian National Right to Health Committee" was established
from a coalition of around 24 political parties and other civil society
organizations as a culmination of the first stage of the campaign and as a
direct reaction to the unconstitutional move from the side of the
Prime-Minister to establish a holding company for the HIO, which was viewed
as a first step direct and drastic step in its
privatization.[i]<http://mail.google.com/mail/?view=page&name=gp&ver=sh3fib53pgpk#_edn1>

On Tuesday 2nd of October 2007, the first National Conference was held in
the Journalist Syndicate in Cairo. The conference came as a culmination of
the work of the committee and as a need to declare to the government of
Egypt and the world a statement from the majority of political parties and
civil society organizations in Egypt on its position from the newly proposed
"Health Reform Law" that the government intends to pass in the next
parliamentary rounds starting next November 2007.

Nearly Fifty political parties, syndicates and unions and other civil
society organizations (signed below) state their total and firm refusal to
the proposed law on the basis of:

1.      The refusal of the *discrimination between people* in their right to
access appropriate health services; through providing different groups with
*different packages of services* according to their means and not their
needs. *As an alternative we propose one package for all Egyptians according
to their real medical and health needs.*

2.      The refusal of enforcing patients' *contribution to a percentage of
the costs* (without a ceiling) which can be and will be out of reach of the
vast majority of Egyptian people. *As an alternative we propose a premium
which is related to the salary and income and a nominal contribution of a
"fixed sum and not a percentage" on receiving the service if necessary.*

3.      The refusal of *entitling the administrative bodies alone* (whether
through the Minister of Health or Prim-minister) *to change the contractual
basis* between the HIO and the clients whether through changing the premium
or the packages offered. Any change in the relationship requires a change in
the law which does not take place except through the participation and
agreements of the clienteles.

4.      *The refusal of the move towards running the major governmental and
health insurance services on the basis of profit* and through for profit
sectors which puts the burdens of the profits on the patients and questions
its validity. We insist that the HIO and governmental services continue to
run on the basis of non-for profit. The private sector can have its
contribution as an additional complementary sector and not the major one
which is to inherit the public sector, the major provider of services to
date.

5.      Finally, we *totally refuse the introduction of the law i*n the
coming parliamentary rounds on the basis that it was developed during the
past two years *in complete darkness and in the lack of any
transparency*and accordingly we demand that the law does not change
without proper
consultation. *We propose holding a process of a national dialogue* during
the coming year through which an appropriate alternative could be developed
with all the different political parties, syndicates and unions and other
civil society organizations.



Built on the above we declare that the law in its current form is
non-constitutional in that it goes against the equal right of all citizens
to appropriate health care and that it goes also against all the human
rights conventions and treaties that Egypt is signatory to.



List of Organizations which endorses the declaration: (Omitted)
------------------------------

[i]<http://mail.google.com/mail/?view=page&name=gp&ver=sh3fib53pgpk#_ednref1>
The
HIO "currently services more than 50% of the Egyptian people". The holding
company has control over all assets and facilities of the HIO and
accordingly could dispense with them.[i]  It has been the experience of
selling out the public sector in all other spheres of life that the
establishment of the holding company is the first step in the liquidation of
the assets of the public sector and selling it for peanuts to the new
private investors.
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